Huey P Long : My First Days In The White House [ First Edition ]
$165
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First edition of controversial Louisiana Senator Huey P Long’s book My First Days In The White House promoting an intended presidential run cut short by his assassination the same year
Long, Huey P. My First Days In The White House. The Telegraph Press : Harrisburg, PA. 1935. First edition, September 1935.
This first edition of the last book by Louisiana Governor and Senator Huey P Long “My First Days In The White House” serves as a relic of his planned 1936 presidential campaign.
A controversial populist, Long’s rise from a rural lawyer (with a year of law school) to railroad commissioner and onto ever higher office led to his election as governor of Louisiana on his second attempt in 1928. Known as “The Kingfish”, Long’s unassailable popularity among the lower and working classes stemmed from his social and infrastructure policies, including free school books and lunches for poor children and building many of the roads, bridges, and highways that still connect the river and bayou riddled state of Louisiana, paying for many of his policies with increased taxes on the Standard Oil Company. Authoritarian in tactics, including the use of armed guards and vote tampering, Long’s methods to seize power earned him comparisons to an American Caesar as well as Hitler and Mussolini during his lifetime. Claiming to be neither a fascist nor a communist but “sui generis”, Long, a nominal Democrat, was a noted critic of both political parties and a vocal opponent of Roosevelt’s New Deal policies, claiming they did not go far enough to help Americans in the Great Depression. Under Long’s proposed, “Share Our Wealth” program, personal wealth was to be capped at $10 million and redistributed so as to provide for the common good and to make “Every Man A King”, per the song Long wrote himself to promote it.
Published the same month as Long’s assassination on the steps of the Louisiana State Capitol, according to its foreword:
“This volume is presented as a prophecy by its Author, the late Huey Pierce Long, wherein he endeavored to portray what he would have done had he become President and how he would have conducted national government…”
Per the novel’s plot, his suggested cabinet picks include General Smedley Butler (famed Business Plot whistleblower), and former presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt, the latter of whom he would have just defeated. Similarly, he depicts making John D Rockefeller Jr chairman of the Share Our Wealth committee to assuage business concerns (after first offering the position to JP Morgan).
Includes many striking political illustrations from New Yorker cartoonist Cleanthe Carr.
8vo, 146pp, red cloth boards with title and author printed. Small blue stain on back board. Unused bookplate on front pastedown. Front pastedown detached slightly at top interior corner. Previous owner’s name in pen upper interior corner first free endpaper. Pages clean. pg 111 torn at margin partly affecting text. Illustrated with 10 plates. Lacks dust jacket. Good condition.
If you liked this book, you might also like this original copy of The Prophet Wudro, an original anti-Woodrow Wilson cartoon parody from 1920.
